Bukavu hospital patients tell of being shot in chaos of Congolese withdrawal | Democratic Republic of the Congo

Patients at hospitals in the second-largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have described how they sustained serious injuries during the chaotic withdrawal of the Congolese army and its allies in the days before Rwanda-backed M23 rebels marched in.

Widespread shooting and looting preceded the arrival of the rebels in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, on 14 February, overwhelming the city’s poorly resourced hospitals.

“I was lying on my bed at home, near Katana,” said 22-year-old Priscilla Nabintu from her bed in Bukavu’s general hospital. “All of a sudden, a bullet hit me [in the shin] and I started bleeding.”

The facility near Lake Kivu was still very busy on Monday. Two blocks had been set aside for people with gunshot and shrapnel injuries.

Mugisho Shalukoma, 20, was recovering from a leg amputation, the result of gunshot wounds. “I felt my foot getting harder and harder,” he said. “I didn’t see the person who shot me. Those around me brought me here.”

Ghislaine Ntakwinja, 41, said she was in her house when unidentified gunmen shot her in her right hand. “Guns were ringing out in the city,” she said, sitting on her bed. “I heard armed men open my house’s door. They had guns. That’s when they shot me.” Her children rushed her to hospital.

As M23 closed in on Bukavu, reports emerged of people collecting weapons and military equipment left by retreating Congolese forces.

Deogracias Chibambo, a human rights activist with the Ça Suffit (That’s Enough) civic engagement group, said weapons had been circulating freely, including among children, causing enormous damage. “There was general panic. Bullets were being fired in many places,” he said.

Last week, the UN human rights office accused M23 rebels of killing three children in Bukavu who were carrying weapons and wearing uniforms from an abandoned Congolese military camp, after they refused to surrender the weapons. M23 denied the accusation, terming it propaganda by the Congolese government.

Esperance Mwamini Birindwa, a nurse with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which operates at the general hospital, said 162 people had been admitted with injuries related to the M23 takeover between 14 and 24 February. Of those with gunshot and shrapnel injuries, three had died.

M23 has made rapid advances this year, drawing in neighbouring armies and raising fears of a regional war.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is facing supply challenges caused by the conflict, hindering its ability to treat wounded people. The organisation’s warehouse in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, was one of many looted and vandalised during fighting in the city last month, with medicine and other items stolen. The fighting has caused logistical challenges, too, disrupting some transport routes.

“Despite all our efforts, evacuations sometimes take longer than expected because of access difficulties,” said ICRC project manager Emmanuel Konin. “Some patients whose lives we could have tried to save are already dead from their injuries.”

Other hospitals in Bukavu have also been overwhelmed by injured people. One had received 42 patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds within a few days of the fall of Bukavu, said Marcus Bachmann, head of programmes for South Kivu at Médecins Sans Frontières, which is supporting some hospitals in the city to treat the high number of injured people.

“We are closely assessing the situation and exploring ways to scale up our emergency efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs of people in areas around Minova, Bukavu, and Uvira,” he said, referring to areas in South Kivu. “We urge all the parties to the conflict to ensure the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and medical infrastructure and personnel in all areas affected by the conflict.”

M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgent groups to operate in the mineral-rich eastern DRC since a 2003 deal, meant to end the wars that had killed 6 million people, mostly from hunger and disease. The group is backed by Rwanda, which says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide. The Congolese government and several UN reports say, in fact, Rwanda is using the group to extract and export valuable minerals for use in products such as mobile phones.

The situation in Bukavu remains extremely volatile. On Thursday, at least 13 people were killed and dozens others injured in explosions at a mass rally held by M23 in the city centre. The rebels accused the Congolese authorities of being behind the attack, while Congo’s army said Rwandan troops had fired rockets and grenades into the crowd.

International sanctions, renewed investigations by the international criminal court and Africa-led peace negotiations have failed to halt the advance of the rebels, who captured Goma last month before rapidly advancing south to Bukavu.

Since January, 7,000 people have been killed and almost half a million are without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed in the fighting in eastern Congo, the government said.

The UN refugee agency said on Friday that 60,000 people have fled into neighbouring Burundi in the past fortnight.